Help with a silver hallmark.

[VERMONTPACKRAT]

Can anyone out there tell me anything about these hallmarks? I picked up a spoon at an antique shop for .50 cents. I figured that I could not go wrong at that price



VPR

 

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[Mackaydon]

Crown over EP in a crest might suggest Britiish (Sheffield??) electroplating, but after 1897 the crown was banned by an act of parliament, to avoid the confusion with solid silver. All quesses.........
Don..

 

[Red-Coat]

Just tidying up some blasts from the past (including some very ancient ones), largely for the benefit of anyone searching the site for information.

Silverplate it is, and by William Wheatcroft Harrison of Sheffield at Montgomery Works, Pepper Alley, Fargate (1857-1883); 230 Rockingam St. (1884-1911), Arundel St. (1912-1918); and with a London Warehouse at 99 Hatton Garden.

As @Mackaydon says, the use of a crown symbol on silverplate by manufacturers cynically using it to create confusion with silver was ultimately discontinued. Although already prohibited (but not explicitly so), it had been tolerated for about 50 years (especially when incorporated into a trademark rather than as a standalone crown) until c.1895 when the Sheffield Assay Office began to assert it’s rights to sole use on silver with threats of prosecution, and subsequent clarification of the legislation. By 1897 most manufacturers (including Harrison) had revised their marks to remove crown symbols but there are occasional instances of makers pushing their luck until about 1901, after which crown symbols are almost never seen on plated goods.